Is It Safe to Swim?

The Joplin Globe, Wednesday, August 2, 2006, poses the question to readers, Is It Safe to Swim? The article identifies the various tributaries (and monitoring sites) that empty into Grand Lake, including: Elk River near Tiff City, Spring River at Quapaw, OK, Neosho River at Commerce, OK, and Honey Creek near Grove, OK.

The answer to the question is that swimming is "not supported" because of bacterial contamination at every monitoring site along the rivers and streams that feed into the Grand Lake-Neosho River Watershed. It all comes down to numbers. For example, the article states that the mean enterocci bacteria in Honey Creek is 362.7 colonies per 100 milliliters of water, 10 times the federal standard of 33 colonies per 100 milliliter for enterococci. The article quotes the United States Geological Survey, "At a level of 35 colonies of enterococci per 100 milliliters of water, 190 of every 1,000 people who get into the water might be expected to come down with diarrea. In other words, if water quality of a particular waterbody is maintained at or below this standard, then swimmers have a 1.9% chance of becoming ill."